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I stared at Frankie, my aching jaw tight around the thousand venomous words I wanted to throw at her for prying too close.
“You’re right,” I said finally, slipping a cool mask over the fracturing hurt.
“So you were hurt,” she said, and the sadness in her voice threw me for a loop. But the damage was done.
“No,” I corrected, every word burning like acid as it left my lips. “You were right about it being none of your business.”
She recoiled as if I’d physically hit her, and I hated myself for it.
“I think it would be best if you focus on the business rather than things that don’t concern you.” I turned on my heel before I could see the pain I’d inflicted with those words.
I didn’t visit the store that week.
And Vinny spent each night in my bed.
Chapter twenty-one
Whispers and Blurred Lines
Frankie
Aweekhadpassedsince Hayden and I last spoke.
Or even saw each other.
Hayden’s absence from the store hurt more than I cared to admit, even to myself and it didn’t go unnoticed.
“Boss lady still too busy to drop by?” Joe asked, leaning on the handle of his broom. It was late, almost closing time, and Hayden hadn’t showed up. I shrugged, the little hole in my chest still fresh with Hayden’s reprimand.
“I guess she has more important business matters to worry about,” I told him, pushing off the back wall in the staff room.
“What do we do?” he asked, and I glanced at him, unease tugging the corners of my mouth into a frown.
“What we’ve always done.” I sighed. “We get to work and make sure the store runs for our customers.”
Joe didn’t say anything else; he packed the broom away in the supply room and dusted his hands off.
I pooled all my focus into closing the store, pushing my dark thoughts away whenever they brushed along my subconscious. I waved at Joe when he left, noting the pensive furrow in his thick, graying brows.
The store around me hummed quietly; the dull buzz of electricity running the refrigerators and fluorescent light bulbs overhead.
It was silent.
With a weight in my gut, I shut off the lights and locked the store, shoving the keys deep into my backpack.
“I figured you’d be closing up again.”
I whirled around at the sudden voice, panic gripping my throat and holding my voice hostage.
Hayden grinned at me from where she stood a few paces away, her curls slightly disheveled.
“Hayden?”
She hummed and took a wobbly step closer, the yellow light from the street lamp illuminating her clothes. Her shirt had one too many buttons undone and had once been tucked into her high waisted pants.
“Did you forget me already?” She chuckled, and though she smiled, sadness tinged her words.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my heart lurching. “What are you doing here?”
